Laura on Volatile Substance Abuse Training

Laura is Development Officer at Fast Forward and regularly delivers sessions with young people, focusing on substance misuse.

That’s me settled into working life at Fast Forward. In the last couple of months I have been very lucky to work with a wide range of young people in lots of different areas in Edinburgh.

I’ve been working at CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), Gracemount Primary, and Dunedin and Canmore Youth Project to name just a few, and delivered training for Scottish Women’s Aid.

The training we delivered was about group dynamics and youth work, and was well received. Scottish Women’s Aid work with women who have experienced domestic abuse but also the children of individuals and run awareness-raising sessions with young people regarding domestic abuse.

Although sessions are quieting down for Christmas I am busy as ever – learning more about substances, developing new resources and catching up on admin. Marina Clayton of Re-Solv recently visited the offices here at Fast Forward and delivered training to us about solvent and volatile substance abuse – I found it really interesting, especially regarding the law. We discovered, for example, that shop owners have a legal obligation to not continue selling solvents to individuals they believe are abusing them.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to the New Year and new adventures with Fast Forward!